Setting

Fort Point State Park is located at the easternmost tip of Cape Jellison, a triangular peninsula which juts into Penobscot Bay at the mouth of the Penobscot River. The {{convert|120|acre|ha|adj=on}} park, established in 1974, includes, in addition to the ruins of Fort Pownall, the Fort Point Light. The cape's eastern tip forms a narrow peninsula, with the fort's ruins on the high ground near its easternmost end.

History

In 1759, during the French and Indian War, Massachusetts governor Thomas Pownall led the construction of a fort here, which he named Fort Pownall after himself. It was one of three significant forts which the British built on the major rivers in the Northeast to cut off the native water ways to the ocean to prevent attacks on the British settlers (also see Fort Halifax and Fort Frederick (Saint John, New Brunswick)).^[6] The fort was intended to secure the area for European settlement by driving off the remaining Norridgewock and Penobscot Indians. The first Commander of the fort was Jedidiah Preble (1759-1763), followed by Col. Thomas Goldthwait (1763-1775).^[1][8] In 1775, British forces seized the cannons and powder. Later, a regiment of Continental Army soldiers burnt the blockhouse and filled in most of the ditches to prevent their use by the British.^[9]

Description

The fort, as built, was roughly {{convert|240|ft|m}} on each side, with an octagonal star-shaped earthworks surrounded by a moat or ditch {{convert|15|ft|m}} wide and {{convert|8|ft|m}} deep. Inside the earthworks was a blockhouse, built out of squared timbers, measuring {{convert|44|ft|m}} on each side, and two stories in height. At each corner there was a diamond-shaped projection, where each side was {{convert|33|ft|m}}. Because the blockhouse and other wooden elements of the fort were burned, only the earthworks and stone foundations remain.^[2]

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Waldo County, Maine

References